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Easy, Fun Games With Numbers

Games with numbers can be great fun and excercise the mind! Below are a few number games with directions on how to play:

Who Can Reach 100 First? This game is easy to understand, and many people can tQ taken in by it. The game may be played several times without the opponent guessing the trick of winning. Two players are needed. The winner is the one who reaches 100 first.

The person who starts - let's call him George - chooses a number. His partner - say, Ken - adds any number between i and 10. Now it's George's turn. The two players take turns in adding a number between 1 and 10 to the previous total. Who will win? Who will get to 100 first?

The winner is the one who can make his opponent reach 99. If Ken reaches 89, then he has already won, because the largest number George can reach is 99. In order that Ken can reach 89 first, he must also reach 78 first. If we continue along these lines, Ken must also reach 67, 56, 45, 34, 23, and 12 first. If George does not know the game and he starts with any number other than 1, then Ken replies with a number which gives a total of 12. Already the winner has been decided, because George can increase this total by 10 at the most, giving a total of 22. Ken makes it 23, and so on, until the total of 100 is reached.

Different rules can also be used. It is possible to fix a target figure different from 100; the upper and lower limits for the numbers to be added can also be changed. We can win all the games if the sum of the largest and smallest number is subtracted from the target figure. In this way we get a series of numbers that ensures victory. If, for instance, the target is 80 and the numbers added must lie between 2 and 7, then the winning series will be 82-9 = 71, 71-9 = 62, then 53, 44, 35, 26, 17, and 8.

The same game has an even more exciting variation. Count out 40 matches. The two players take turns, removing at least 2 and not more than 5 at a time. The player removing the last match is the winner.

This problem is easy to solve: the winner is the one who leaves 7 on the table. Since his opponent must remove at least 2 and not more than 5, in the first case 5 and in the second 2 would be left. So that 7 matches will be left, the winner must also leave 14 previously. Similarly, this applies when the number left on the table is 21, 28 and 35. These are multiples of 5 + 2 = 7 - therefore, if the person who starts knows the game, he simply removes 5 matches and the game is as good as won.

If, however, the person who knows the game does not start, he may not be able to win. Suppose that Ken knows the game, but George insists on starting. George takes 4 matches, leaving 36. In this case Ken cannot reach 35. It is possible that George will play into Ken's hands on the next move, but if George thinks about it logically, then whatever Ken's second move is, George can prevent Ken reaching 28. Therefore, Ken has lost the game.

If the rules are changed so that the loser removes the last two matches, the one who starts must try to leave two matches after his last move. This he can achieve if the number left after his next-to-last move is 2 + 2 + 5 = 9. We get this number by adding, to the last number to be left, the smallest and the largest number that can be taken away. The number 9 can be reached if the previous total is 9 + 7 = 16. Then, the previous totals are 23, 30, and 37. The person who starts must, therefore, remove 3 matches. Naturally, only the one who starts can be certain of winning.

Think of a Number. This is a well-known game with many variations. Let's have a closer look at some of the more interesting ones. Katie says to Valerie, "Take a piece of paper and a pencil, think of a number, and write it down. Multiply it by 10 and take away the number you first thought of. Add 36 and cross out one of the figures in the final number (except the last one, if it is o). Tell me the figures that make up the final number, in any order, and I will tell you the figure you crossed out". Valerie writes down 312. She multiplies it by 10: 3,120. 3,120 - 312 = 2,808. 2,808 + 36 = 2,844. She crosses out the 8 and rearranges the remaining numbers: 4, 2, 4.

Katie adds these together, 4 + 2 + 4 = 10. She subtracts the sum from the nearest number larger than 10 that is divisible by 9, that is, 1 8. The remainder is the number Valerie crossed out.

Why does this work? Valerie, when she had finished the sum set, arrived at a number divisible by 9. If any number is multiplied by 10 and the original is subtracted, then the remainder is 9 times the original number. If we add to this 36, that is, 4X9, then the sum will also be divisible by 9. We know that if the figures of a number divisible by 9 are added together, the sum will also be divisible by 9. So the missing figure, with the sum of the other figures, gives a number divisible by 9.

Valerie did not want to be outdone and asked Katie to think of a number. Then she said, "Double it, add 4, divide by 2, add 7, multiply by 8, subtract 12, divide the remainder by 4, subtract n, and tell me the result. I'll tell you the number you thought of".

Katie thought of n. n X 2 = 22, 22 + 4 = 26, half of 26 = 13. 13 + 7 = 20, 20 x 8 = 160, 160 - 12 = 148, 148 /4 = 37. 37 - 11 = 26. Katie tells Valerie the result: 26.

Valerie subtracts 4 (22), halves that, and says, "The number you thought of was n". Naturally, Katie is very curious. Valerie explains, "You take four from the final result, halve that, and you have the original number". They try it several times, with different numbers, and the answer is always right.

About the Author

Malcolm Blake has written articles on all manner of games, including popular flash PSP games.

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Tips for Choosing a Material for Your Chess Set

With the abundance of options in chess sets, it is easy to become overwhelmed, especially at the delicate pricing point. This article will point out the reasons for price variation on chess sets, for a given l. Of course such choices as size of the chess pieces, the length of the chess board, or thickness will have an overall effect on the price. This article focuses on the relative differences when all such things are held equal.

The first thing that will dictate the price of the chess set is choice of the materials that are used in its production. The most popular options include Metal and Wood. Additionally there are several woods that are available and each will influence the price of the chess set.

Chess pieces that are made from metal are going to be the most expensive, while chess pieces that are made from wood are less expensive, in some cases extraordinarily so. Metal chess pieces are more expensive because of the extra equipment that is needed. The hardness of the metal that are used will force replacement of equipment due to wear faster than wood. Additionally, mining the ore needed for metal is usually more expensive than that of obtaining wood.

Even with choosing wood chess sets, there will lie a large price variation in pricing amongst the possible woods. Sheesham wood, Rosewood and Ebony are the three most popular choices for chess sets. This also their order of increasing cost. Sheesham is a lighter colored brown. It is an excellent choice for chess pieces, with its ability to be carved. Identical sheesham set can be up to 50% less that Rosewood set and 70% less that Ebony. Sheesham pieces are just as beautiful as their counter part, with a warm traditional feel to them.

Rosewood chess sets are then next on the ladder. Rosewood is a darker wood with even darker grain running through it. It is also a harder wood and more difficult to procure. As such, the skill needed to work with rosewood drives the cost higher. The wood varies in color from a Brown to a very deep coffee color, and can be found to have red hints throughout. As such, this wood produces a rich chess set that is a beautiful centerpiece to any chess collection.

Finally there is Ebony. When a player is looking to make a statement in a room or in a match, this is certainly the choice to make. Ebony is a dense hardwood that is difficult to find. The wood will vary in color from dark purple to deep black. Carved, it is a very impressive as chess pieces. Because of how hard it is, creating chess pieces from ebony is something that left to the most skilled of the trade. That, coupled with its rarity and demand causes the ebony chess sets to rise in price. The result is a severe and well heeled chess set.

With all the chess set that are available for purchase, this article was able to provide the guidelines explaining the source of the costs in a chess set. While there is a large range of the prices to choose amongst, a chess set is an investment that will return hours of joy and satisfaction to anyone who empowers them selves to own one.

About the Author

Bradford Roegner is webmaster for BraRoe Wood Chess Sets. He is available to help provide people with the tools to bring chess into their life. You can contact him Bradford@braroechess.com any time with question.

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Burning Down The House: How To Light A Cigar

Like any essential, simple activity, lighting a cigar has been rendered an expensive process by modern capitalism. You might think a box of matches would do the trick, but why settle for little sticks of burning wood when you could be lighting your stogies with an S.T. Dupont Ligne 2 Versailles Collection Lighter (retail price: $1795)?

Cigar aficionados who live in windy climates - the Alps, perhaps - will want to invest in the windproof flame Exodus lighter from Xikar, at just under $60. (Or you could just, you know, get out of the wind.) Or perhaps you'd like your lighter to double as a cigar punch - after all, they say this is an age of multitasking. In that case, just $100 will suffice to purchase yourself a Colibri V2 twin V-flame lighter. Or maybe you want a lighter that says "Porsche" on it - that'll be $99 for the Electric Piezo PDI from Porsche Design, please. Even more pretentious is the classic Dunhill lighter, which goes for anything from $450-510. For that money, it should drive your car and cut your hedges too.

For those of you who just want to get the thing lit, of course, there are many more sensible, less flashy options. The dependable Zippo lighter is always a good choice, and, of course, there are always matches - though in all seriousness, it really is better to use sulphur-free matches to spare yourself from that chemical aftertaste.

If there's one thing that this profusion of fancy lighters attests to, it's the trepidation with which cigar smokers approach that moment of ignition. After all, a badly-lit cigar smokes unevenly or not at all, which will in turn necessitate a second lighting. You don't want your hard-earned tobacco going to waste. Not only that, but the way you light a cigar may affect its taste - adversely, in most cases.

The taste of a cigar is a delicate balance between many elements (filler, wrapper, binder, conditions of storage, etc) - taste can be affected by chemicals from cheap matches, or even by handling the end of the cigar with cologne-soaked hands. Especially dangerous are liquid fuel-based lighters. The lighter fluid that through the metal fuse drives the flame, in such lighters, has its own strong smell and taste - and you'd better believe that those fumes are carried into your cigar by the flame, where they remain, moving further into the cigar with each puff. (Butane lighters, on the other hand, are OK.)

Obviously, lighting a cigar calls for a certain caution. And, just as important, careful lighting can enhance the relaxed, slightly elevated, formal, ritual quality of the after-dinner smoke. Would you cut the pages of an antique, first-edition Dickens novel with a pair of K-Mark scissors? Would you marinate a premium steak in a four-dollar bottle of Ripple? Would you go to church in your bathrobe?

Torch lighters are useful when you're braving the elements (those high winds again). Otherwise, a flint lighter or sulphur-free match is fine. Cut the end of the cigar and ignite, holding the foot of the cigar just above the flame. Turn the cigar (don't move the flame, but the cigar). If possible, blow lightly on the burning end of the cigar to help more and more of the tobacco to ignite. Continue turning, and a glowing ring should slowly form. Be patient. (You may need to use more than one match - which is another argument for buying longer matches.) Another factor to consider is that torch lighters tend to be lower down on the price scale, with good ones ranging between $15-150 rather than the $100 and up required for flint lighters. (Most of the pricier lighters mentioned above were, of course, flint lighters.)

When the whole end of the cigar is aglow, insert the other end into your mouth. Take a long puff, so that any still-dry tobacco is caught up in the general incandescence. Don't start puffing too quickly, which pulls the flame up through the cigar and leads to a hotter, acidic, less tasty smoke.

Follow these hints, and your cigar experience will proceed smoothly and pleasurably from ignition to countdown to liftoff. Probably. Remember, these things are handmade. If, despite your best efforts, you find that the cigar burns unevenly, do not attempt to relight; it won't work. Smoke it the best you can and suck it up (no pun intended!). There'll be more.

About the Author

CigarFox provides the finest cigars that include cigar brands like cohiba, gurkha and many more. Other cigar products include cigar humidors, cigar boxes, and cigar accessories like Zippo Lighters.

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The Weekend Woodworker’s Top Hand Tools

Woodworking can be an enjoyable and rewarding hobby or profession. When setting up a woodworking area, it's important to stock the right tools and follow some practical safety rules to make the most of your woodworking projects.

Nearly everyone has used a hammer at some point in time. And hammers come in many shapes and sizes. The most versatile and helpful to the woodworker is the claw hammer, which features a smooth, slightly rounded finish head. Choose a hammer that is not too heavy but fits comfortably in your hand, such as a 20 ounce model.

An invaluable woodworking tool, the speed square is the quickest and easiest tool for making a square line for an end cut. The triangular-shaped measuring tool is designed to assist the woodworker in making square marks or angles on stock. It can also be used to mark any angle up to 45 degrees or measure up to six inches. Speed squares are available in 6- and 12-inch models and the aluminum model is nearly indestructible.

The 25-foot retractable tape measure is a woodworker must. Be on the lookout for certain features when choosing a tape measure. Tape measures include both standard (imperial) and metric markings. Your tape measure should also have a locking mechanism that allows you to pull out a length of tape and lock the unit so that it won't retract. Also choose a tap measure whose hook at the end is slightly loose on its rivets (this is by design), which will allow the woodworker to take inside and outside measurements.

No woodworker should be without a utility knife as well. The razor-sharp knife is useful for cutting thin material and it can also be used for cleaning out hinge mortises or scoring before making a cut with a power tool.

No matter how many power tools a woodworker may have, the chisel remains one of the most versatile tools in the wood shop today. Its likely precursor was the sharp rock used to carve wood in prehistoric times. The most commonly used chisel is the bevel-edged chisel that features a blade four to seven inches and a 25-degree bevel on three edges. The chisel's sharp-cutting edge can be guided through wood stock with a handle that has been specifically created to aid the tool in its cutting task.

Woodworkers often need to determine if their piece of stock is perfectly level (horizontal) or plumb (vertical) and the level is the tool for this job. Woodworkers most often reach for a full-length, 48-inch level that features two glass-encased bubbles on each end of the level. The other most-often used level in a woodworker's shop is the torpedo level, which is between eight and ten inches in length. This level is ideal for examining level and plumb on small objects.

Like the claw hammer, screwdrivers are a necessity to the woodworker. Consider acquiring a variety of sizes in your woodshop, including the #1, 2, 3 sizes of Phillips and Flathead, as well as several with a square head, Torx, and star drivers.

Resembling a small, round chisel, nail sets are used to sink nail heads flush or just beneath the wood's surface. A nail set allows the woodworker to sink a nail into the wood without causing a dent or bruise in the wood. Nail sets come in a variety of sizes, based on the size of the nails being driven.

Finally, every woodworker needs a block plane in his or her woodshop. A small block plane is a device used for shearing small amounts of wood away from the stock. It's also invaluable for cleaning up edges during assembly.

Safety
Like any other pursuit, safety in woodworking is mostly common sense. However, failure to follow the rules can greatly increase the chances of injury. To begin, always wear safety equipment, especially safety glasses. Avoid loose-fitting clothing and wear clothes that can protect you from flying wood chips. Before beginning a blade change on your power tools, disconnect the electricity to the power tool. Use sharp blades and bits, as a dull cutting tool can be dangerous. Always work against the cutter - a router bit or saw blade should cut into the stock not with the stock. Especially important, never reach over a blade to remove cut-offs.

About the Author

Safecutters Inc., provides an online store of utility knife box cutters for opening shipping boxes and shipping packages, as well as safety knives to open moving boxes and packages. For more information about Klever Kutter and other Safecutters products contact us!

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Novelty Cigar Boxes: The Second Wave

From mug-shaped cigar boxes to gameboard boxes, the cigar makers of the world have shown great creativity in packaging their wares, and no period was more fertile for the cigar-box collector as that from 1878 to the early twentieth century. (All info here courtesy of the National Cigar Museum.)

The novelty cigar box began with a Federal decision in 1878, when postal codes were changed to allow packages of cigars (a heavily-regulated good, in the post-Civil War economy) to be mailed in any shape or size, as long as you could still put a stamp on 'em. This legislative loosening just happened to come along at a moment when new tobaccos were being developed and demand, stimulated by a generation of Union soldiers who'd had to pass through tobacco country and acquired the smoking habit, was rising.

New customers, new tobaccos, new products - companies were willing to try anything to distinguish themselves from the competition, and, not incidentally, to tempt smokers into buying not an individual cigar but the entire box. And so a sort of golden age resulted: the late-nineteenth century saw some of the goofiest, cleverest, and most memorable product design lavished on cigars.

And then, things changed. Novelty packaging died out for a while during the early part of the twentieth century, only to see its fortunes change again during the Great Depression - a time, strangely enough, when many Americans could not afford entire boxes of cigars, and when the premium-cigar industry experienced harshly competitive conditions thanks to the emergence of machined-rolled cigars and cigarettes.

Novelty cigar boxes made a comeback, fueled by cigar makers' hopes to revive by-the-box sales. Boxes from this period are often "practical," designed for household use even after their packaging function is served, and - in a much more radical departure from previous cigar marketing efforts - they were designed to appeal to the wives or girlfriends of the men who smoked the cigars.

Padlocked-box designs enjoyed considerable popularity. Well-made enough, in many cases, to seem attractive and solid even today (when they turn up at auction), these were often made of fine woods such as red cedar; the Hudson Treasure Chest, for example, has copper trim and was originally issued with a key for its padlock. Art deco boxes were a popular choice as well.

From the Netherlands, there came cigar boxes shaped like wooden shoes - the Karel I 10-count cigar box which was sold as a souvenir to passengers visiting Holland by boat during the decade. The shoe also contained a deck of cards. From another Dutch company came the Kaveewee truck - a little red delivery van, with a stogie-chomping driver painted on the sides and front, hollow on top and containing up to 100 cigars.

Finally, there were radio-shaped cigar boxes given away by Emerson, the electronics companies, to purchasers of new radios and televisions. Packed with twenty-five cigars, these boxes were built to resemble those waved-top, stolid little brown radios that sat in so many American living rooms broadcasting the adventures of Dick Tracy (or, more importantly, the first reports from the Blitz of London by Edward R. Murrow).

Book-shaped cigar boxes date back to the 19th century: even before the 1878 law change that encouraged a flood of novelty boxes, book-shaped boxes weren't hard to find; their shape was close enough to standard postal boxes as not to run afoul of the more stringent pre-1878 law. But this tradition continued into the second golden age of novelty packaging; especially notable is a 1936 box with a red "spine," reading "Democratic National Convention 1936." On the other end of the commercial scale from this political giveaway item, consider the once-ubiquitous red-cedar boxes embossed with the words "The Sweetest Story Ever Told." (To which I'm tempted to reply, "Well, that depends on the kind of cigar inside.") Another favorite front motto: "Friendly Thoughts" (written in mock-Gothic, hymnbook-cover lettering).

About the Author

CigarFox provides the finest cigars that include cigar brands like Cohiba, Montecristo, Gurkha, Macanudo, Rocky Patel, Romeo, Drew Estate, and many more. Other cigar products include cigar humidors, cigar boxes, and cigar accessories like Zippo Lighters.

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Log Cabins And Lincoln Rear Ends: The Strange World Of Collectible Cigar Boxes

When cigar giant CAO announced a special, officially-licensed cigar commemorating the long-running TV show The Sopranos, the combination seemed to make sense. What's less surprising than a cigar company saluting a universally-hailed TV show, whose "hero," Tony Soprano, was so often seen chomping the end of a premium cigar?

But some buyers were a little disconcerted when the limited-edition cigar came packaged in a box that looked like the back end of Tony Soprano's car.
However, the crazy CAO Sopranos box actually continues an honorable tradition: the novelty cigar box. From mug-shaped cigar boxes to gameboard boxes, the cigar makers of the world have shown great creativity in packaging their wares, and no period was more fertile for the cigar-box collector as that from 1878 to the early twentieth century. (All info here courtesy of the National Cigar Museum.)

The novelty cigar box began with a Federal decision in 1878, when postal codes were changed to allow packages of cigars (a heavily-regulated good, in the post-Civil War economy) to be mailed in any shape or size, as long as you could still put a stamp on 'em. This legislative loosening just happened to come along at a moment when new tobaccos were being developed and demand, stimulated by a generation of Union soldiers who'd had to pass through tobacco country and acquired the smoking habit, was rising. New customers, new tobaccos, new products - companies were willing to try anything to distinguish themselves from the competition, and, not incidentally, to tempt smokers into buying not an individual cigar but the entire box. And so a sort of golden age resulted: the late-nineteenth century saw some of the goofiest, cleverest, and most memorable product design lavished on cigars.

For starters, there was the Immense Cigar box - a giant, two-foot-long cigar-shaped wood box holding within it 100 small cigars. (Children of the eighties, on reading about this bit of memorabilia, may remember those giant Darth Vader heads in which you could pack your Star Wars figures.) Made by the four-person Louis Simons cigar factory of New York City in 1878, this wonderfully literal-minded package (a cigar containing, well, cigars) was among the first to benefit from the Postal Service's rule relaxation.

Then there's 1877's Piper Heidsieck champagne-bottle packages. They were hand-turned on a lathe, and only 25 were made; each is a masterpiece of American craftsmanship. They could be unscrewed at the middle, with the cigars standing loosely up from the bottom of the bottle.

And you can't serve champagne without crackers and cheese, right? Cheese It cigars (not the most promising brand name ever) made a round cheesebox-shaped cigar package for its five-cent smokes during the year 1880. Now exceptionally rare, these elaborate cigar packages also include (on the inside of the top of the box) an illustration from a famous Central Park race walk held in 1878, with the nation's top race walkers depicted therein (one of them being menaced by a wheels of cheese!). This box is so sublimely silly and complex that it just barely escapes the otherwise-inevitable designation "cheesy."

And then, in a sort of act of meta-commentary, there was Foster, Hilson and Company's mailbox-shaped cigar box. Exploiting the new openness in postal laws, this company released mailboxes in the shape of the receptacle into which mail-order cigars were to go. Released in 1881, this novelty item (from the then-giant New York firm) must have been hard to stack, given that curved top.

Then there are the practical boxes: for example, a box with its own thermometer and calendar. Quite possibly a give-away by a bank company (the three existing Frank Pchaski cigar boxes that match this calendar-and-thermometer profile all have different year calendars on them), these late-1880s boxes allowed you to have a smoke and, uh - tell the temperature at the same time. And know what date it was. Perhaps "practical" is in the eye of the beholder.

About the Author

CigarFox provides the finest cigars that include cigar brands like Cohiba, Montecristo, Gurkha, Macanudo, Rocky Patel, Romeo, Drew Estate, and many more. Other cigar products include cigar humidors, cigar boxes, and cigar accessories like Zippo Lighters.

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A Quick How To On Scrapbook Supplies

Standard photo albums are great keepsakes, but the plain features of such albums rob the photographs of their personalities. Modern scrapbooks are increasingly popular because they preserve more than just the facts of the memories, but the feelings.
Many want to get into scrapbooking but are intimidated by the immense possibilities before them.

They maintain the desire but lack the guidance to get started. The first thing to remember is that when one is just getting started with scrapbooking, it is far better to do a simple project well than to attempt something complicated and fail. It does not have to be difficult, nor does it require incredible creativity. The artistry is not nearly as important as preserving the feelings.

Ugly scrapbooks that preserve feelings mean much more to people than fancy ones that miss the entire sentiment of the memories. With some basic tools and some introductory training, anybody can create an emotional scrapbook. The point is not to impress your friends, but to capture what the camera misses about the most important events of your life.

First, go to your local craft or scrapbooking store and pick up cardstock, or a patterned paper of your choice. The size of such materials is completely up to you. Get a few pairs of scissors with interesting patterns.

Collect a group of pictures for your first project. You can have the film redeveloped if you are worried about permanently damaging anything valuable. Working with copies is much more forgiving and will alleviate stress as you work. Browse for stickers too since they are so inexpensive, but avoid the temptation to get carried away and buy a lot.

Markers are a must. Pens just will not suffice, so get a wide variety. Finally, you will need something to hold the pictures on the pages, so a glue runner or double-sided tape would be best. A simple glue stick will work but tends to get messy and does not always hold the pictures on the pages as well.

Whichever you choose, it must be acid-free to protect your photographs. Here is a simple step-by-step on how to use your new supplies. First, coordinate your background paper with your photographs. Plan a few layouts to use multiple photographs, but save the very best pictures for their own pages. Use the cardstock to create the mats for your pictures.

This is done by cutting the shape of the pictures out of the cardstock slightly larger than the pictures themselves, and by slightly I mean about a quarter of an inch. Go ahead and glue or otherwise adhere the pictures to their mats so you can get a clear preview of your scrapbook page. Cut a strip of paper and write an interesting title with your new set of markers.

Move things around until they look the way you want them, but do not glue anything to the background until you have included your stickers in the layout. Once you have all of the elements planned, lay down the stickers and glue the title and photo mats to the background.

The page is finished, and now you can repeat the same process for the other pictures you chose for your scrapbook. Do an entire scrapbook the same way so there is continuity between the pages. As you experiment with other pages, you will discover what you like and do not like so you can go to the scrapbook store better prepared when you need more supplies.

About the Author

Terry Fitzroy is a professional writer specializing in Patterned paper and Scrapbooking products To learn more about Scrapbook Embellishments visit BlackberryPaper.com

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Your Choice of Digital Photography Printing

Printing your shots into paper is the next important thing in digital photography. And the best photo shot will not be given justice if you have not used the proper printing equipments for it. To be able to do justice to the photos that you took digitally, a good printer will really make the prints come to life.

The existence of various types of digital camera paved the way for different types of printers to be developed. Manufacturers know that printing photos is way different from printing plain prints. That is why they are always coming up with printing abilities that would suit digital photo prints well.

Nowadays, there are a lot of ways to have digital photography printed. Each printing methods and techniques have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is best to know what these things so that you will know what to have and what to avoid when having your photos printed.

Here are some digital photography printing choices:

1. Photo store.

The old style of bringing your film to a photo store for developing is still practiced today. The only difference is that films are not anymore used. You just need to bring with you your digital camera and the photo shop will print your photos for you.

An advantage in using photo stores is that they are complete with highly advanced machines you might not have at home. In addition, they know a lot of tips and tricks to make your photos appear its best. Plus, the photo store has the capability to edit your photos if you feel that it does not suit your taste. You only have to give the specific instructions and they will do the rest.

The disadvantage with using photo stores is the waiting period. Even if it does not take as long as it does with films, you still need to wait sometime before your photos are printed. Another disadvantage is that the printing machine they are using may not be the type that you want your photos printed on. So it is better to be very clear about the printing equipment that you want them to use so that this problem will be prevented.

2. Home printer.

This is fast becoming one of the most popular methods of printing digital photos. More and more people are getting their own printers installed at home so that they can print their photos anytime they feel like it.

This way, you can edit your own photos and compile them in your own private collection before you start printing them out. You only have to make sure that you have the proper printer for your digital photos if you want them to turn out the way you expect them to be.

With home printers, you do not have to wait in line for your photos to be printed. All that is needed is for your camera to be plugged in directly to your computer. From there, you can print the photos in no time.

The only drawback in home printers is that you have no other choice of printing process to use. The printed copies will depend on the kind of printing that you use.

With digital photography printing, you definitely have a choice. Just choose the one that you think will give you the perfect photo with minimal hassles and headaches.

About the Author

Steve Trammell is an author, digital photographer and owner of ePhotoPoster.com, a photo to poster internet photo printing company. Visit his website at http://www.ephotoposter.com Find out how to turn your photos into posters for fun and profit.

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How to Achieve Picture Perfect Shots via Digital Photography

Gone are the times when photographers had to take several shots of an image and develop them to find out if a fine or even perfect image was taken. Several photographers of this art form refer to this technique as trial and error.

Nowadays, there are a numbers of photographers who have decided to shift from regular point and shoot and old SLR models to digital ones. Through DSLRs, they can get more time to concentrate in taking those great pictures since images that are not par with their standards can simply be deleted away.

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. The name implies the use of lenses and a mirror. Mirror reflects light entering the lens up into the viewfinder. Thus, a photographer can estimate how the image will likely appear when it is developed. Moreover, a SLR camera uses separate lenses that can be interchanged depending on the resolution needed. Hence, this camera can be used to capture image with varying depths.

Likewise, a digital SLR or DSLR camera uses lenses and mirror. But instead of a film that records the image, a DSLR camera uses light sensor chips and digital memory. In other words, a DSLR camera is the computerized version of the traditional SLR camera.

However, the functions of these models are rather different so it is suggested that users spend time getting familiar or acquainted with these gadgets. Owners should use that trial and error technique by taking a few shots and storing better pictures. Sooner or later, users can surely hack these models.

Individuals who decide on using these types of cameras should really invest on memory cards and lenses. Thus, if they happen to become professionals someday, additional equipment will surely keep them busy for choosing photography as a career.

Here are some helpful tips that will definitely aid owners of DSLR cameras in capturing a perfect image using the new art of digital photography.

1. Normally, people take full body shots against a background. However, it is more appropriate to take a shot from shoulders up or an upper body one because image of those in the picture really appear small.

2. If doing the above technique happens to be difficult for the user, he or she can take a shot of the person with him or her at one side rather than at the center. Then the owner can just zoom in so the person appears to be at the center.

3. The law of optics remains the same whether using an old or a digital camera. For instance, if the sun is behind an image, the picture will be silhouette. If light is in front of the image, the picture will appear squint unless there are sunglasses on.

4. Use your sunglass to act as a polarizer to take away unnecessary reflections from glaring objects.

5. You can also use a sunglass to increase the exposure of objects.

6. When using a polarizer, be sure that the source of light is perpendicular to the object.

7. Change your white balance setting from auto to cloudy when shooting bright landscapes and outdoor portraits.

8. Do not use the flash mode when the setting is already sunny.

9. Zoom in to emphasize a certain asset or characteristic of the subject being captured.

10. Practice. Practice. Practice.

It suffices to say that the techniques in getting the perfect shot have not changed. However, using digital cameras and employing this new art of digital photography have simply improved photo shooting by making capturing pictures easy for everyone.

In other words, practice is what really makes perfect shots!

About the Author

Steve Trammell is an author, digital photographer and owner of ePhotoPoster.com, a photo to poster internet photo printing company. Visit his website at http://www.ephotoposter.com Find out how to turn your photos into posters for fun and profit.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Wet Fly Fishing For Trout

The Walker's mayfly nymph is a weighted fly which imitates the emerging mayfly before it crawls out of the water and flies away. It therefore is not dry and sinks. These are cast upstream in front of a fish and "tweaked" or gently retrieved often with great success-they are ideal on a chalk stream when the fish are not rising. This is usually the only acceptable form of wet fly fishing on the major chalk streams.

Fishing for trout in general is practised in fast water when the current does the work or in still waters when the fly is cast downstream and slowly retrieved.

Wet fly fishing for trout involves lighter flies which are cast downstream into pools or lies where fish are expected to be. This method is used at night for sea-trout, or sewin as they are known in Wales.

Wet fly fishing in reservoirs and still waters involve much bulkier flies which are cast out long distances and retrieved .The flies imitate various bugs and even perch fry which the big rainbow trout hoover up in vast quantities in the spring. Still waters are on the whole stocked with rainbow trout which feed on bugs and fish fry and in the big reservoirs such as Bewl Water, Chew, Blagdon, Rutland Water and Grafham Water grow to a large size and are extremely powerful-hence great to fish for. On these large waters wet fly fishing is usually done from boats since the levels will fluctuate and this leads to muddy banks when the water level drops.

In the natural lakes in the Lake District, Scotland and Ireland brown trout give good sport on retrieved wet flies; often fished in groups of three. These lakes also contain the large brown ferox trout which are cannibals and feed on their smaller brethren-and are usually caught on lures and spinners-not flies.

Downstream fly fishing for trout on a fast moving river on a summer's evening is indeed a pleasure, brown trout and grayling will both be there to pit your wits against. Fishing for trout and grayling in rivers and streams of the West Country and Wales is particularly good.

Wet fly fishing in Ireland has its many opportunities. Most rivers and streams hold brown trout and there is lots of free fishing. The Irish lakes hold some very large trout and boats and ghillies are available on the famous lakes such as Corrib, Conn and Mask.

There are good numbers of small man made "put and take" fisheries up and down the country. Some are excavated especially for trout fisheries others are chalk and gravel pits which have been stocked. In the main, these waters are stocked with Rainbow Trout which are not indigenous but hail from the Rockies in the west of the USA. Rainbows can tolerate higher water temperatures and lower oxygen content in the water than the indigenous Browns and also can grow very quickly. Some waters are stocked with fish of over 15 pounds.

The flies for these still waters imitate all sorts of bugs and fish that live in the lake and some look nothing like anything living there but still catch fish!

These fisheries offer the wet fly fisherman great opportunities to improve casting select the right fly and catch very big fish.

We plan to offer information about these fisheries which will be a free service to the fishery owners-so keep visiting us.

About the Author

Jon Kelly is a published author who writes on many diverse subjects that includes advice and tips on fly fishing. We hope to provide you with information you can rely on. To find out more please visit: flyfishingcentre.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

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